I've already read an ARC of this in order to review it and it's bloody brilliant. If you don't win a giveaway copy, buy it yourself because it's fantastic. Here's the review I wrote (previously posted elsewhere):
Nina is Not OK is a book which not so much leaves an impression as pulls your still-beating heart clean out of your chest, does a little dance on it, then pops is back in upside down. While making you laugh. And cry. Oh, especially cry.
Full disclosure: I adore Shappi Khorsandi. She's warm, funny and wonderful and I want to be just like her when I grow up, please (that I'm 43 and apparently a grown-up already is neither here nor there). I was, then, fully expecting to enjoy 'Nina'; I was not expecting, however, to be, y'know, deeply affected by it. Yeah, I'm not crying, I've just got a novel in my eye.
Lovely, lovely Nina is eighteen and an alcoholic. A childhood tragedy is the seed from which her addiction to alcohol grows; a traumatic experience as she's on the very cusp of adulthood is what sets her spiralling out of control. A supporting (but not always supportive) cast of friends and family attempt to halt her decline, but before long her illness alienates even those she is closest to. In Nina, Khorsandi has created such a credible, likeable, damaged heroine that the reader cannot help but to fall absolutely for her. We care, oh good God we care. We care about her, and what happens to her, so very much. This is testament to Khorsandi's skill in crafting such a wonderful character; one whose humour (remember, I did say laugh AND cry) serves to both lighten the horror while also drawing into yet sharper relief. It's also the reason why the book never feels hard work, or overwhelming; there is much that is challenging here, but you're never far from one of Nina's scathing one-liners or pithy observations. Which of course, makes us love her even more.
Nina is Not OK is a searing exploration of teenagerdom, and how delicate the balance between 'fine and dandy' and 'my life is going down the tubes' is at that age. Emerging sexuality, tangled friendships and the sweet agony of first love are all covered, sensitively and honestly, here. But it's the darker side of the novel which truly haunts. The question of consent hangs over the whole narrative; victim blaming and shaming makes for an often uncomfortable and harrowing read. For all the laughs, the wild nights and crazy tales, at the heart of the story is a vulnerable girl who 'fucks [people] just so [she] can have a cuddle'. And when you're young, and vulnerable, there will always be those all too ready to take advantage of you.
The wonderful thing (OK, one of the many, many wonderful things) about Nina is Not OK, however, is that despite all, it's actually, ultimately truly and completely redemptive. Nina has balls - she has fight and she's so utterly courageous and brave and strong. We root for her, we will her on, because (did I mention?) we care about her. And she doesn't disappoint.
I have a daughter Nina's age which might, perhaps, explain why I was such a cryface practically from page one. A more likely reason, though, is the fact that Shappi Khorsandi has written a book so bloody brilliant, so insightful, so well-researched, so sweet and sad and painful and lovely, that it made me snot on the bus. Read it, read it now. It's the most perfect, tragic yet curiously uplifting novel you'll read all year.